Chapter edited and reposted – 16th July 2006

Spelling, grammar, description and one new jinx I've added for fun!

Disclaimer: Let's see…Hogwarts-JKR. Lily, James and the rest of the Marauders-JKR. The magical world-JKR. Tash-Me. Jenny-Lady Mearle. That is it… except for a few spells and Tash, I own NOTHING!

Reviewer responses:

Ashley- Two reviews! Thank you so much! Lily's being a bit short sighted isn't she? I did have fun on my trip thanks. It was quite warm in France. Enjoy the latest chapter.

Tai Greywing- Thank you Tai! I'm sorry about the commars and the apostrophes, but I really am very bad at this grammar. I am watching Doctor Who right now, must not get distracted...

Lady Mearle- Thanks Mearle! I'm back but I didn't catch a muse whilst on holiday (pout!). And you can tell me how much you love my story any time you want... no Deimos I am NOT big headed!

MoonylovesFlo- I love conflict too. Unfortunatly I suck at writing it. Eh well, maybe a muse will come knocking on my door and I'll get better. Here's the next chapter!

A/N: I'm back! I'm so so so so so soooooooo sorry I left you for over a week! I missed you all! I didn't find a french muse during my stay but I did find a little inspiration. Ah well maybe it's the jumpstart I need.

Chapter 8

To stay away from everyone, Lily shut herself in the library all of Sunday, and most of Monday, speaking only to Ethan. On Sunday he had asked her to be his girlfriend, and she had said yes. He made her happy and they had been getting on well. However without her friends Lily was becoming desperately lonely.

Lessons had become something of a torture programme. Not only did she have to endure the Slytherins, but now Tash would gaze into space whenever Lily was around. She didn't say a word to anyone and she even forgot to be horrible to Sirius. On more than one occasion, Lily had spotted a tear.

When Lily had argued with Tash, she had expected the full force of World War Three to break lose. But Tash didn't seem to have the heart to shout at her, and Lily was finding the silence even worse. Added to which, Jenny was routinely bursting into tears at the hopelessness of her friends. Lily's silence was pushing her friends closer to the Marauders.

To focus on something constructive, Lily had been deciding how to get a confession out of James. Fortunately for her, Defence against the Dark Arts classes were dedicated to research giving Lily the perfect time to think about it. Ramton was delaying the final rounds until after the Gryffindor vs Slytherin Quidditch match, which would take place on Halloween in two weeks. Lily had another feeling of guilt whenever someone mentioned the duelling rounds, she couldn't help remembering the second round in which Tash had defended her against Bellatrix. Lily had noticed something that had cheered her friend up slightly. Tash would be fighting Bellatrix in the finals.

On Monday evening, Lily was sitting in her dormitory on her bed trying to sort her thoughts out. She had patrolling in two minutes. She sadly looked over at Tash's bed. The huge radio was positioned next to her table. Lily missed Tash's singing in the morning, but there had been no music since the argument.

Lily missed her friends terribly. She wanted to go and apologise, but she knew that Tash would want her to give up Ethan, and she was having a good time with her new boyfriend.

She checked the clock again. Ten o clock. She had to get going. Sighing, Lily crept downstairs. There were people still in the common room. She listened and found that the voices belonged to Tash, Jenny, James, Sirius and Remus.

"I'm telling you again Potter, I am not apologising until she dumps that stupid two timing prat." That was Tash.

"You could just swallow your pride and go apologise now," Remus suggested.

"No!" Tash said in a defiant tone.

"Tash you're not the only one who misses Lily," Jenny said. "Why can't you just go and say sorry? I want things back the way they were!"

"I do too, but…" Tash trailed off. There was a silence.

"I am going for a walk," Tash said finally.

"Tash as Head boy I think I'm going to have to object," James said. Lily chuckled. She could almost see Tash glaring at him.

"Lily'll kill me if I don't try to stop you," James said.

"No one's going to see me," Tash said irritably. "Accio!" Lily ducked as the radio and her invisibility cloak came soaring past her head. There was the sound of the portrait being closed and Lily assumed that Tash had left. She sighed and hoped that she and James wouldn't catch her on patrol. Not only did she not want to have to put her friend in detention but she knew that it would just start another argument, which was more than she could bare.

She walked into the common room. Jenny was playing chess against James, with Remus trying to help. Sirius was holding Bali, who was struggling to get at the chess pieces.

"Ready James?" she asked. James shrugged and got up as Sirius released Bali, who chased the chess pieces around the room. Apollo followed.

'Well, at least the cats are still friends,' Lily thought.

OOO

"James?" Lily asked. They were on the third floor and so far they had found the school deserted. At the sound of her voice, James looked up. Lily decided to get right to the point.

"Why did you prank me and Ethan in Hogsmeade?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about Lily," said James, putting on a look of innocent surprise, which did not work on Lily.

"Oh please Potter," she sighed. "Give me credit for having a little bit of intelligence. I know it was you lot down by the shrieking shack. How many other people do I know that have an invisibility cloak?"

"Hmm…good point," James said.

"So it was you!"

"I never said that. I said you were making a good point about invisibility," James said, and for a minute, he sounded exactly like his old cheeky self.

"Why would you want to ruin our time together?" Lily asked in disbelief. "What the hell could you possibly have against Ethan anyway?"

"Because…he's," James struggled with his choice of words. "He's not good enough for you."

Lily stopped halfway towards checking a broom closet. She knew where this was going. "And what? You think you are good enough?"

James said nothing. She had caught him out.

"You know James, I really thought you had grown up over the summer," Lily slammed the broom closet shut. "I guess I was wrong. God, if I'd known you were going to stoop so low as to…"

She stopped mid-sentence. She had opened the next broom closet to check it for students and found two people locked together at the lips. Lily gave a scream and James hurried over.

The girl James recognised as Donna Frye, a fifth year Slytherin, who's sister was in their year. When James noticed who was sharing the closet, he didn't know whether or not to cheer for joy, because the boy sitting in the closet was Ethan Roberts.

"I don't believe it!" Lily shrieked. Donna immediately stepped out of the closet and James launched into a lecture to stop himself from singing in happiness. Lily meanwhile had marched over to Ethan and slapped him.

"How could you! You ask me out and then you go snogging Slytherins in the broom closet! Tash was right, you really are no good!" She stormed off, leaving an elated James to deal with them.

Halfway up the fifth floor, Lily burst into tears. Despite knowing that she might now be able to have her friends back, being cheated on still hurt and Ethan had seemed wonderful.

She ran back up the fifth floor corridor. As she passed a window overlooking the lake, she ran into something large and skidded to the floor. For a second she thought someone had put a trip jinx on her. The she looked over her shoulder to see Tash's head floating in mid air.

"Ow!" she said indignantly. Then she noticed Lily's face.

"Bloody hell Lily, you look terrible!" Tash pulled the cloak off her and helped Lily off the floor. Lily had to giggle at Tash's honesty.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Looking at the lake," Tash said. "I can't go swimming this late…so I just like to look at it. Anyway, what's wrong with you?" Lily sat down next to her.

"He was cheating on you wasn't he?" Tash asked immediately. Lily wiped her eyes and nodded, hoping that Tash wasn't about to turn around and say 'I told you so'. That would hurt too much to bear.

"Say the word and I'll hex him tomorrow," Tash promised. "There's a nice little jinx I looked up called the portenus curse. Makes the persons stomach bloat up…"

"Tash I'm sorry," Lily choked. "You were right, I shouldn't have trusted him over you."

"Why are you sorry?" Tash asked. "I was the prat. I'm the one who didn't think that people could change."

"People don't change," Lily said. "As I just witnessed."

"Ha!" Tash laughed. "That's not what you said about James the other night!"

"Oh god James!" Lily said clapping her hands to her mouth. "I left him down there to deal with Ethan and Donna!"

"What!" Tash asked. "Donna? As in Donna Frye? Serena Frye's sister?"

"They were snogging in a broom closet," Lily told her. Tash cracked up laughing.

"Tell me everything!" she demanded. Lily recounted the story, and at the end, she felt better about being cheated on.

"She's a SLYTHERIN!" Tash asked. "Eww! That's disgusting! That's like imagining Snape snogging…in don't know, Bellatrix…ARGH! HORRIBLE PICTURE!"

"Shh! Someone's going to hear us!" Lily giggled as Tash cradled her head in her hands to try and block the picture from her mind.

"Eh they won't," Tash said looking up and waving her hand. "I've been playing my radio up here for two hours and no one's heard me. Well Professor Dumbledore heard me trying to get a signal, but there's nothing in this castle."

"So how come it's working?" asked Lily, looking at the muggle item next to Tash.

"Dumbledore put some anti magic charm on it," Tash said. "Thank god. I have serious music withdrawal!"

In the distance a bell tolled midnight.

"Think we should get back?" asked Lily.

"Probably," Tash said, picking up her radio and getting to her feet. "Come on. Under the cloak and no one will see us."

"So…" Lily paused. "Are we…friends again?"

"Yeah," Tash smiled. "Come on, or we're going to be caught."

They hurried up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower. The Fat Lady was asleep in her frame.

"Oi!" Tash tapped the picture to wake her up. "Stardust Mirage!"

The Fat Lady dozily let them in. Upon entering, Lily and Tash found Jenny, James, Sirius and Remus all waiting for them.

"Where in the name of Merlin have you been!" Jenny freaked jumping up and down in panic. "James said you had disappeared and now you both turn up late! I've been worried sick! What if the Slytherins had got you! What if you'd been locked up somewhere! What if you'd got stuck somewhere! What if you'd been attacked by something! What if a teacher had found you! What if a grizzly bear had found you!"

"Yeah coz there's really going to be a grizzly bear in the middle of Hogwarts," Tash snorted.

"What the hell happened!" Jenny ranted, before Remus pushed her down on to the nearest chair and fed her a block of chocolate.

"Relax Jen," Lily said as soothingly as she could.

"What happened is that Lily and Ethan broke up and we're friends again," Tash said in short. Jenny stopped choking on her chocolate and looked at the two of them. She then shrieked and threw her arms around both of them together.

"Okay Jenny," Lily said. "We love you too, but you're…cutting…air!" she gasped. Jenny let go of them and flopped back in her chair in exhaustion.

"Thank God for that at any rate," James said as Remus fed Jenny more chocolate. Lily turned to him.

"I'm sorry I shouted at you earlier James," she said.

"Eh it's fine," James said. "I am kind of used to it, I mean you've been shouting at me for the past six years."

"And I'm sorry for all that too," Lily said, feeling that she might as well get all apologise out of the way. "I'm sorry I've been so horrible over the years. I'm sorry I've shouted at you so often. And I'm sorry…oh well let's just say I'm sorry for everything up to this point!"

James grinned and pulled her into a hug. Taking this as a cue, Jenny grabbed Sirius and Remus and pulled them into a massive 'big hug!' Tash shrugged and joined in too.

Once everyone had let go, Lily sighed. It was good to have her friend's back with her.

"Suppose we should go to bed," she said. "We do have lessons tomorrow."

"No way!" Sirius said. "We didn't just engage in one of Jenny's famous hugs to not hear the story!"

"We'll tell you tomorrow," Lily promised.

Tash yawned in agreement and Jenny stood up again.

"Night guys!" she said cheerfully, running back up the stairs. Tash got up and followed, trying not to walk into a wall on the way.

"Good night," Lily smiled at the three boys, as they trekked upstairs to their dormitory. Lily followed her friends up the stairs.

"Lily Marie Evans I want a word with you," Jenny said. Lily sank onto her bed.

"Can't it wait till tomorrow?" she groaned.

"No!" Jenny said. "What was with all the 'sorry's' you just threw at James down there!"

"Nothing," Lily said.

"Nothing my broomstick!" Jenny said. "Come on. Did you finally just realise that he might just be a little more than a friend?"

"I know what it is," Tash called from the bathroom. She stuck her head out, with her toothbrush in hand. "Now she's broken up with Ethan, she's realised what good men look like."

"No!" Lily protested.

"But you would be so good together!" Jenny complained. "I mean, you're both Heads, we know you like to be around him. And he really cares about you!"

"Yes but unfortunately the affection has to run two ways!" Lily pointed out.

"Aha!" Jenny shouted triumphantly. "Then you admit that you like him!"

"No no no!" Lily shook her head. "I mean I know he likes me but I'm not sure…"

"Not sure!" Jenny shouted, causing Crystel to turn over in her sleep. "You mean you've actually considered…"

"Well…" Lily trailed off. She didn't know what to say. The truth is she had found herself mentally comparing Ethan against James over the last few days. Now she really didn't know what to think.

'Don't be stupid, you know what the answer is,' the annoying part of her brain was coming back into play.

"I'm tired," Tash moaned, flopping on her bed and drawing the curtains. "Night guys!"

"Yeah I think I'll go to bed too," Jen said, grabbing the curtains and tugging them together. Lily lay back on her bed, not bothering to get up to draw her own curtains. She was wrestling with her feelings, and wondering what to do.

OOO

Two weeks later, Lily was woken once again by Tash singing in the dorm. She grinned. It was a sign that things were back to normal. Tash was pulling on her Quidditch robes and brushing her hair back into a ponytail.

"Is this the way, to Amarillo? Every night I've been huggin' my pillow. Dreamin' dreams of Amarillo, and sweet Marie who waits for me…"

"Tash, that song is old," Lily said. "Four, five years old!"

"Eh what the hell it's not like Jen or Crystel would know! They don't listen to muggle music!" Tash said, switching her radio up full blast, causing Jenny and Crystel to throw cushions at her.

"Thank you very much Natasha Mary Alice Marquand!" Crystel said, pulling herself out of bed.

"I do listen to muggle music!" Jenny said indignantly, "just not much of it!"

Lily and Tash grinned at each other. They loved their dorm mates. Since Crystel was pureblood and Jenny was half blood, they had helped both of them adjust to the magical world during the first year. But Lily knew Tash didn't think much of their taste in music.

"Get your robes Jen!" Tash said. "We are going to cream Slytherin and serve 'em with Apple pie!"

"If you say so Tash," Jenny shook her head and walked to the bathroom. Five minutes later, all four girls left the dormitory to find the rest of the team at breakfast. The girls sat with James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, as was now traditional.

"Nervous?" James asked.

"Nah!" Tash said. "Been here, done this, got the T-shirt." She pointed to the Gryffindor T-shirt under her robes.

"How are you feeling Jen?" Remus asked, looking worriedly at her.

"A little nervous," Jen admitted, ignoring the toast Lily had dumped in front of her.

"Don't worry Jen," Lily said. "Tash was like this before her first match."

"Yeah and she got knocked off her broom five minutes in!" Jenny said.

"It was that stupid Slytherin keeper!" Tash said. "He flew into me as I was going to score!" Realising that this was not helping Jenny, Lily kicked Tash under the table to shut her up.

"Mail's here," Lily said, for distraction.

"Oh Merlin no!" Tash cried, looking at the owls. Everyone looked up and fear settled upon the hall.

Among half the owls in the hall were carrying black envelopes. These letters were issued by the Ministry to the families of Death Eater victims.

"Why today!" Lily wailed as they watched the owls swoop over the hall. Several flew over the Gryffindor table, landing in front of students, who took the letters fearfully. Lily couldn't help noticing that not one of the owls delivered to the Slytherin table.

"Look," Tash pointed down the table at Crystel, who was staring in horror at the letter in front of her.

"I'm going to see her," Lily got up and hurried down to Crystel.

"I'm going to wander round the hall," James remembered Dumbledore's instructions at the beginning of term and walked over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Are you okay Crystel?" Lily asked, sitting down beside her.

"I don't want to read it!" Crystel said. "I don't want to know. What if it's my parents!"

"What if it's not?" Lily asked. "Come on. I'll stay with you."

Slowly and trembling, Crystel picked up the jet-black envelope. Her hands shook worse than ever as she pulled back the seal. She tugged the letter out and read it.

"Who was it?" Lily asked.

"It was my aunt," Crystel said. She had stopped shaking, but she was still pale. "They attacked her in her home."

"What about your uncle?" Lily asked.

"He was out, with their son thank Merlin," Crystel put her head down on the table and dropped the letter in the pumpkin juice jug.

"Are you going to be okay?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," Crystel looked up. "I'll just go upstairs for a while. I'll see you at the match."

Lily sat back in her seat, looking at the devastation in the hall, and wondering how much more destruction the magical world could take.

A/N: Argh! I piled on the misery in there! Don't worry it gets more cheerful, I promise. Now I'm going to put some treats out with which hopefully I can catch a muse… Wish me luck! I have a Business Studies exam tomorrow afternoon! And then History on Tuesday. Update will be on Wednesday to make up for the week I missed.

Next chapter: Gryffindor vs Slytherin and the post match party. And I will spoil no more of the chapter!

May Stardust fall in your dreams!